Buffett's Best

Image source: http://optionalpha.com/
Billionaire Warren Buffett is “consistently ranked among the world’s wealthiest people, and is the third wealthiest person in the world as of 2010… He is one of the most successful investors in the world… In 2007, he was listed among Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the world.” (Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/) People’s ears perk up whenever he speaks on his views on economy and other issues. His devoted followers deem his economic wisdom Solomonic.

Now, what was the best advice that this most sought-after font of financial advices has ever received? In an exclusive interview, he lauds his father, businessman and politician Howard Buffett, for “teaching him how to live” (Yahoo! News) Buffett credited him for teaching “The power of unconditional love. I mean, there is no power on earth like unconditional love. And I think that if you offered that to your child, I mean, you’re 90 percent of the way home. There may be days when you don’t feel like it — it’s not uncritical love; that’s a different animal — but to know you can always come back, that is huge in life. That takes you a long, long way. And I would say that every parent out there that can extend that to their child at an early age, it’s going to make for a better human being.” (Ibid) It seems that Buffett is also working on making a better world. He is now fulfilling his pledge of donating 99% of his wealth to charity. (He already gave away US$2 billion.) And, to top it all, Buffett “has joined forces once again with Bill and Melinda Gates on an initiative to persuade the world’s billionaires to donate half their fortunes to charity.” (Ibid) What a noble cause indeed!

Yet, we don’t even have to be billionaires to fulfill such cause. We have already experienced the power of unconditional love. “We know what love is because Jesus gave his life for us. That’s why we must give our lives for each other.” (1 John 3:16, CEV) So, now we are to transform from objects of God’s love to channels of His love, from recipients to givers. Since we experienced His love, we are now to express it through our words and works. That’s how it is to live! Sharing God’s love is also one sure sign that we really received it. “God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him… Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life.” (1 John 4:8; 3:14a) It is time that we grow from not just being loved towards being lovers ourselves.

My take? “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19, ESV)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God Knows Judas Not Pay

In the National Geographic Magazine (May 2006 issue), in its cover story, The Judas Gospel , Professor Eliane Pagels of Princeton University claimed that the so-called gospel of Judas “ changes the history of early Christianity. ” Even UP Professor Randy David took notice of the Judas Gospel: “Strictly from a sociological standpoint, I think the discovery of the Gospel of Judas makes Christianity a far more interesting religion than what centuries of metaphysical theology has made of it.” (A Gospel for the Postmodern, Phil. Daily Inquirer, April 16, 2006) That’s why I spoke in our Young Pro Fellowship a few days ago on God Knows Judas Not Pay (A Biblical Response on the Judas Gospel). I believe opportunities like this hype on the Judas Gospel or the Da Vinci Code opens a door for us to share the true Gospel. For those who did not attend last Thursday, let me share briefly why we reject the Judas gospel. I came up with the acronym J-U-D-A-S. J udas was portrayed as a traitor in the Bibl
Read more

“Ubus-ubos Biyaya, Bukas Nakatunganga”

Image
That’s what my mother always told us when we were still kids. (Translation: “You spend everything today, you will have nothing tomorrow.” ) Image source: So, What's New ? Dionie did just that. Last April 2008, he won PHP14,125,032 in the Lotto 6/42 draw. Excitedly, he “lived the life of a millionaire, something he had been longing to experience. He lived in a P4-million house in a posh subdivision, drove around in a sports utility vehicle [which he bought the very same day he claimed his prize] , and gave goodwill money, ranging P1,000 to P 850,000, to relatives and friends. He also gambled daily, womanized, and went on regular drinking sprees.” (Source: Manila Bulletin ) He estimated that he squandered a minimum of P100,000 almost every day. He also lent money even to people he did not really know. “I just gave them and told them not to pay me back.” (Ibid) His bank had to issue him a special card so he can withdraw huge amounts of money quickly from the automated teller m
Read more

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!”

Image
Forty years ago, this expression became known as a description of blind obedience.   Source: Los Angeles Times On November 18, 1978, members of Peoples Temple, a cult group in Guyana, drank Kool-Aid drink laced with cyanide to commit a mass suicide “at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones”. [1] According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica , “The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. ”  [2]  What made those people submit to such atrocity? According to Stella Morabito, a senior contributor to The Federalist online magazine, Peoples Temple is “Exhibit A… [of]  the dangers of the cult mindset or how vulnerable all people are to cult tactics.”  [3] She pointed out that, Coercive persuasion has immense power to shape and twist the human mind.  …[Jones’] utopian preaching of a humane world in which all lived happily in harmony resonated with the
Read more